1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for alerting a person carrying an EEG assembly. More specifically the invention relates to a method for alerting a person carrying an EEG assembly for warning of a specific biological incidence, such as a hypoglycemic attack. Moreover the invention relates to an apparatus for alerting a person carrying an EEG assembly for warning of a specific biological incidence.
Hypoglycemic attacks occur as a result of a too low blood sugar concentration, which is mostly a problem for diabetics, who are treated with insulin or other blood sugar regulating medical drugs. Others at risk include those having a genetic predisposition to having a low blood sugar. The attacks can be highly severe and often entail unconsciousness. The risk of an attack therefore often limits the possible activities of the people concerned, which furthermore decreases their quality of life. Attacks can be prevented in a simple way, e.g. by consuming appropriate food when glucose values become critically low. The problem is however that many in the risk group cannot by themselves sense when their blood sugar concentration reaches a critically low level with risk of an attack, a phenomenon known as hypoglycemic unawareness. The number of people in the risk group is approximately 10 million.
2. The Prior Art
WO-A1-2006066577 discloses an apparatus for prediction and warning of hypoglycemic attacks where an implanted unit only operates as an interface unit with a low power draw, which gathers EEG signals from one or more electrodes and transmits them wirelessly through the skin to an external unit. The external unit contains the more power demanding components including the signal processing unit and the alarm signal giver. In this case the alarm may be an acoustic signal.
WO-A1-2006066577 further discloses an apparatus for prediction and warning of hypoglycemic attacks where an implanted unit contains both signal processor, alarm giver, a rechargeable battery that is charged wirelessly through the skin by an external unit and a wireless communication circuit that allows the implanted unit to transfer data to the external unit or one or more substituting external units.
WO-A2-2007047667 discloses an apparatus containing a bioelectric measurement system, a remote monitoring system and mobile devices. The bioelectric measurement system is utilized in connection with a patient undergoing medical surveillance to measure bioelectric signal patterns associated with EEG and EMG readings. The remote monitoring system and the mobile devices are configured to receive transmissions of bioelectric related data from the bioelectric measurement system. If an emergency characteristic is detected the remote monitoring system may be directed to transmit the appropriate data and/or predefined notification alarms and messages to a medically enabled mobile device.
WO-A2-2008092133 discloses a system for monitoring a subject and its susceptibility for having a seizure. The system contains an implanted assembly and an external assembly. The external assembly may be used to provide a warning instruction. The output from the external assembly may be visual, audio, tactile (e.g. vibratory), or some combination thereof. The disclosed systems can also include an alert that is configured to indicate that there is a communication error between the implanted assembly and the external assembly. The alert can be disposed either in the internal assembly or in the external assembly. The alert can be a visible alert, an audible alert, a tactile alert, or any combination thereof. The components of the external assembly may be integrated within a housing of a typical consumer electronics device such as an MP3 player or cellular phone. The radio-frequency used to transfer data between the implantable assembly and the external assembly is at a frequency typically between 13.56 MHz and 10 Ghz.
WO-A2-2007150003 discloses a system for ambulatory, long term monitoring of a physiological signal from a patient. At least part of the system may be implanted within the patient. Brain activity signals are sampled from the patient with an externally powered leadless implanted device and transmitted to a handheld patient communication device for further processing. The external device will typically include a user interface. The user interface may be used to provide a warning signal when the implanted device is out of communication range.
When operating an EEG assembly without an external device there is not a ready means for visual presentation of relevant information.
If operating an EEG assembly with an external device connected by a wireless connection there is a risk of periods of down-time where the system is unable to alert the user.
A particular problem in an EEG assembly that relies on wireless communication is that the maintenance of a wireless connection is often relatively power consuming.
It is therefore a feature of the present invention to overcome at least these drawbacks and provide a reliable and user friendly method for alerting a user of an EEG assembly.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide an apparatus adapted for reliable and user friendly alerting of a user of an EEG assembly.